Obama documentary does well on eve of Republican convention.

Published 10:26 pm, Sunday, August 26, 2012

With the Republican National Convention set to kick off this week, an anti-Obama documentary did surprisingly well at the box office on one of the slowest movie-going weekends of the year.

The No. 1 film was still “The Expendables 2,” which claimed the top spot for the second consecutive weekend.

But the real story at the box office was “2016: Obama's America,” a documentary from conservative author Dinesh D'Souza that far exceeded industry expectations.

The movie, which opened in mid-July, has done strong business as it gradually was shown in more cities.

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Over the weekend it took in $6.2 million to finish at No. 8. It had the highest per-screen average of any film in the top 10, pulling in a per-theater-average of $5,717.

“It's extremely rare for a documentary to break into the top-10, but August can be a land of opportunity for smaller films,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

“Also, there's the fact that this is a very conservative film. Normally, it's Michael Moore-branded documentaries, the liberal documentaries that make all the money.”

“Obama's America” is based on the book “The Roots of Obama's Rage,” written by Dinesh D'Souza, who co-directed the movie with John Sullivan.

As D'Souza narrates in a trailer for the film, the documentary argues Obama's dream is that “the sins of colonialism be set right and America be downsized.”

The documentary now has climbed to a $9.1 million domestic total, with prospects for strong business as the GOP Convention unfolds over the next few days.

D'Souza said Sunday “Obama's America” will expand to more cities in the coming weeks and probably remain in theaters until early October, likely followed by a DVD release in the homestretch leading up to the Nov. 6 election.

Conservatives probably account for most of the documentary's audience so far, D'Souza said.

But as with “Fahrenheit 9/11” — Moore's 2004 documentary about George W. Bush's presidency, which drew many conservatives out of curiosity — the attention “Obama's America” is receiving could prompt left-leaning viewers to check it out, he said.

“What's happening is that people are really hungry for new information about Obama. There really is this sense that he remains an elusive figure,” D'Souza said.

“Then there's a second sense that the American dream is in the balance, the American dream is at stake, and that gives people a sense of anxiety about where the country is going.”